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Softwood Lumber Prices Flatline as Supply Balances with Demand
The closures and curtailments at North American softwood lumber manufacturers earlier this year, almost all at British Columbia sawmills, has achieved it’s intended consequence of improved supply-demand balance. Until that wood production went offline, order files at most sawmills were one week or less, which is incredibly short for the time of year. In recent…
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US New Home Sales: May 2019
Contracts for new, single-family home sales in the US declined to a 626,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in May according to estimates from the joint release of HUD and the Census Bureau Tuesday. This was a surprising drop due to recent softening of mortgage interest rates and continued low unemployment. Recent months’ data have been relatively positive,…
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US Lumber Imports & Exports vs Softwood Lumber Prices: April 2019
US lumber imports from the world crashed in April, down -22% from March, said US Census Bureau in the latest data release Tuesday. US lumber imports from Canada are down almost -25%. US lumber imports from China are down only -5% in April 2019 compared to March. US exports of softwood lumber for April 2019…
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Canada Lumber Manufacturing & Sales, Exports vs Softwood Lumber Prices: April 2019
Lumber production in Canada increased by +18.7% from February to 5,528.3 thousand cubic metres in March, said Statistics Canada in the latest data release June 5. Production was -5.3% lower than in March 2018. Sawmills shipped 5,145.1 thousand cubic metres of lumber in March, up +15.7% from February and -2.1% lower than in March 2018.…
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US Housing Starts: May 2019
Total housing starts in the US posted a -0.9% decrease in May, to 1.269 million units, compared to an upwardly revised April estimate of 1.281 million units, according to the joint data release Tuesday from the US Census Bureau and HUD.Relative to May 2018, total starts are -4.7% below the annual pace of 1.332 million units. …
